300 Endangered Northern Leopard Frogs Released in Columbia National Wildlife Refuge

To start a new population, authorities released 300 endangered northern leopard frogs in the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge.

Rewilding 300 Endangered Frogs

Recently, hundreds of endangered frogs raised at the Oregon Zoo and Northwest Trek Wildlife Park in Eatonville, Pierce County, were released back into the wild.

Keepers at Northwest Trek released approximately 300 northern leopard frogs in Grant County's Columbia National Wildlife Refuge at the end of August in an effort to create a new population in the area, according to a news release from the wildlife park.

Northern leopard frogs were previously common throughout North America, but they have swiftly vanished from their original ranges in western Canada, Washington, and Oregon as a result of disease, invasive species, habitat loss and degradation, and climate change, according to the wildlife park.

With only one known wild population living in the state, the species has been categorized as endangered in Washington since 1999.

The endangered frogs still have a long way to go before they are fully recovered.

The fall of frogs in the Pacific Northwest is most likely caused by illness, non-native species, habitat loss and degradation, and climate change.

Crickets for Head Start

The key stage for this species has been reached, according to scientist Lindsay Nason of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. As a result, officials are striving to avoid those dangers during vital growth stages and create a new population of the species of northern leopard frogs in the area.

The department took northern leopard frog eggs to Northwest Trek and the Oregon Zoo in the early spring so they could develop into egg masses, tadpoles, and eventually froglets.

The frogs are maintained in a controlled setting where keepers keep an eye on everything from the condition of their water quality and temperature to the volume of food they consume, according to Marc Heinzman, Northwest Trek's zoological curator.

By feeding the frogs food like crickets to support their natural foraging instincts, keepers helped the animals get ready for life in the wild.

The Columbia National Wildlife Refuge ponds became the frogs' new home once they were old enough to be transported there by keepers and a Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, according to the wildlife park.

The frogs' chances of surviving in the wild are improved by giving them a head start and raising them "free of predators," according to Heinzman.

Northern Leopard Frogs

Smooth-skinned, brown, green, or occasionally yellow-green, the northern leopard frog has big, oval dark spots all over its body, each of which has a lighter halo or border.

Its underside ranges from white to cream, and both sides of its back are lined with conspicuous, continuous paler dorsolateral ridges, or fins.

The length of a large northern leopard frog is approximately 4.5 inches. Males and females are slightly different in size.

The quantity and well-being of functional populations have drastically decreased for the northern leopard frog during the past thirty years throughout its western range.

This decline has been caused by a variety of factors, such as habitat loss and degradation, the introduction of exotic predators like non-native fish, bullfrogs, and crayfish, the introduction of pathogens and pesticides, and the effects of climate change on aquatic habitats.